$119 Sep 1 • iPhone 11, Apple Watch 5 and more: The final rumors AirPods 2 vs. AirPods: What’s the difference? See it The big question is price. The person I spoke to didn’t have any details on the cost, but the list price of the PowerBeats3 Wireless is $200. You can actually pick them up for as low as $90 on Amazon and Best Buy has them on sale for $100 off, which is also a pretty good indication that something new is coming.It wouldn’t be surprising if Beats stuck a list price of $250 on the new PowerBeats, although that’s too high and wouldn’t end up being the real street price. In my opinion, they have to cost $200 or less to compete with the AirPods, which are priced from $159 to $199.We’ll update this post as we get more info, but it should be an interesting next few months as more companies, including Apple’s own Beats, put out compelling AirPod alternatives. Apple Apple Mentioned Above Beats Powerbeats3 Wireless (Black) Share your voice Review • Beats Powerbeats3 Wireless headphones: Better, but how much better? See It $199 Comments $49 Tags Now playing: Watch this: Mobile Accessories Headphones CNET may get a commission from retail offers. Aug 31 • Best places to sell your used electronics in 2019 $119 10 See It Amazon Enlarge ImageBeats will announce a new version of its PowerBeats sports earphones that removes the cords and makes them truly wireless, like the AirPods. Sarah Tew/CNET Apple may make what it says is the “world’s most popular headphone” — the AirPods — but lest anyone forget, it’s the owner of another headphone company, Beats, which will have its own true wireless competitor hitting the market shortly. A cord-free version of the Beats PowerBeats wireless sports earphones will be announced in April, according to a person close to the retail channel who has previously provided credible information to CNET.We’ve seen this game plan before. After Apple released the AirPods in the fall of 2016, Beats also announced new headphones, including the BeatsX, which incorporated Apple’s latest headphone chip, the W1. Read: Beats Powerbeats Pro full CNET reviewSimilarly, the new true wireless PowerBeats earphones are expected to use Apple’s new H1 chip and have the same always-on Siri voice-assistant as the new AirPods, as well as the other connectivity improvements that the H1 is supposed to deliver. The battery life may also be better than the AirPods. Beats hasn’t had a major headphone release since the Beats Studio3 Wireless, which was updated with the W1 chip and improved sound in June of 2018. The brand is overdue to update its line. The new PowerBeats could serve as an alternative to people who were hoping the new AirPods would include design improvements that would help keep them more securely in more people’s ears, and offer features like better bass and water resistance. Those features will most likely be available in the new PowerBeats. Aug 31 • iPhone XR vs. iPhone 8 Plus: Which iPhone should you buy? Best Buy • See It Aug 31 • Your phone screen is gross. Here’s how to clean it Powerbeats3 Wireless Earphones reading • Beats’ answer to Apple’s new AirPods is arriving in April See All 2:45 Scoop Appleread more

Kolkata: A joint forum of state and Central government employees, public sector employees, teachers and non-teaching staff has written to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ariz Aftab on Wednesday, urging him to make adequate security arrangements for polling personnel on the days of election.The forum, under the banner of ‘United Movement of Workers, Employees and Teachers’, requested the CEO to ensure a proper atmosphere in and around the polling stations, so that polling personnel and officials may discharge their duties without the fear of being intimidated. Also Read – Rs 13,000 crore investment to provide 2 lakh jobs: MamataIn their letter, some of the government employees told the CEO that in a few previous incidents, the polling personnel were threatened. They urged the Election Commission to ensure that no polling persons feel frightened while performing their duties on the days of poll. The forum also raised another issue with the Election Commission. They said that the polling officials are supposed to exercise their franchise either by Electronic Data Capture (EDC) system or through postal ballot, which they get well in advance to the date of poll. However, during the last Parliamentary polls in 2014, the Assembly polls in 2016 and also in the Panchayat polls in 2018, most of the officials received their ballots either immediately before the elections or after the date of election. Some others did not receive the ballots at all. As a result, a section of the election officials could not cast their votes in previous elections, the letter says. The letter also points out that the forum members came to know from the postal department that the ballots were delivered to the addressees immediately after the postal department received them. The members of the forum urged the CEO to ensure that there is no recurrence of such incidents in the Lok Sabha polls.read more

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Growing a business sometimes requires thinking outside the box. Free Webinar | Sept. 9: The Entrepreneur’s Playbook for Going Global 4 min read May 30, 2017 Just after the inauguration in January 2017, Nathaniel Teichman, chief operating officer of an audio sharing app, went to a rally for Planned Parenthood in Washington Square Park in New York City. He saw a problem. Activists who called the offices of their representatives in Congress became stuck on hold and had to endure long waits before they could voice their messages. “It seemed like there had to be a way to use technology to make it easier for people to take part in the democratic process,” said Teichman, 30, who studied business at Columbia University. Since graduating, Teichman had wanted to pair his business background with his passion for music. In 2015 he began working for Venmo co-founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail on an app called Ense. It functions like an audio version of Twitter allowing musicians to share sound clips. After the election of President Donald J. Trump inspired Teichman to political action, he wondered if Ense’s model could be repurposed so that citizens could share their personal stories with their representatives. Related: Getting Started With Small Business App DevelopmentIn early 2017 he began working pro-bono on nights and weekends with collaborators, Aneesh Bhoopathy and Phil Ditzler, whom he met through Ense. With “a little bit of computing magic and a little bit of manual labor,” he said, they co-founded the app Stance. It delivers audio clips, many of them wrenching testimonials, from users’ mouths straight into representatives voicemails. For the activist on the go, Stance means no more navigating automated phone prompts, no more waiting on hold, and no more being unable to get through when call volumes run at flood levels. During the House vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, for example, some 7,000 new people used Stance to make themselves heard. “It’s using audio sharing technology to get people more involved,” said Randy Lee, 50, a partner at Limebeat Studios in Manhattan, who also collaborated with Teichman.Since its launch in early March, more than 20,000 people have downloaded Stance on their iPhones and Androids, Teichman said. All of them have the choice to also have their audio messages publicly tweeted at their representatives. When New York City-based web designer Ryan Giglio chose this in late March, because he was worried about a bill that could weaken internet privacy, his representative, Democrat Carolyn Maloney, tweeted back at him.“I think the app is great, it’s a great low-friction way of participating in a very high-friction system,” Giglio said.In an e-mail, Maloney said, “Any new technology that better enables constituents to reach out to their representatives is a change for the better.” Related: How to Include Politics in Your Marketing Without Turning Anyone OffShe’s not the only member of Congress learning about Stance. In Montana, Democratic Senator Jon Tester began fielding questions from reporters about the new ways he is hearing from his constituents through apps like Stance and Countable. “It doesn’t matter if it is through an app, mail, e-mail, phone or fax, people should always be able to contact their representation,” Tester e-mailed. “As technology advances, it’s critical that members of Congress are able to hear from their constituents in as many ways as possible.”Teichman said Stance will continue to develop, particularly with the aim of making it easier for congressional staffers to tally and catalog users’ concerns. Teichman also hopes that with enough people choosing to publicly tweet their audio clips, new data sets can emerge to help fact-check public officials. Related: 8 Ways To Pivot Your Business To Kickstart Growth“Politicians always say when they cast their votes that they’re just representing the will of their constituents,” he said. “This allows us to say, ‘Well, actually we have 300 of your constituents who say the opposite.’” A lesson he takes from his experience founding Stance is that in entrepreneurship it is helpful to find a previously unaddressed problem that can be solved by repurposing and modifying a tool that already exists. It’s how he got from the music collaboration idea at the heart of Ense to Stance, an idea that that allows more of the collaboration that is at the heart of representative democracy.“Everyone’s trying to do something right now,” Teichman said. “This is what we can do.” Register Now »read more

Get the biggest Daily stories by emailSubscribeSee our privacy noticeThank you for subscribingSee our privacy noticeCould not subscribe, try again laterInvalid EmailPolice are advising motorists to expect delays on the roads of North Staffordshire this weekend due to a football match and a wide load passing through the area. The load will set off from Stafford at around 8am on Sunday December 17 – having previously being postponed due to bad weather. Police say the load will be travelling from the county town to Newcastle via the A34 Northbound. The load’s route will take it from Stafford, through Stone and then onto Newcastle and Talke. There are also expected to be delays around the Bet365 stadium as Stoke City play West Ham at home. Read MoreHave you seen these parking spaces taped off? This is why A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: “Please be aware or some potential traffic congestion over this weekend with Stoke City FC at home on Saturday, and a wide load movement on Sunday from Stafford to Talke along the A34. “Please be patient and follow any Police officer instructions to help minimise your delay.”read more

In This Issue. * Happy Birthday Chuck… * Bernanke worried about growth in US… * Japan posts a trade surplus… * Indian rupee falls… And, Now, Today’s Pfennig For Your Thoughts! Happy Birthday Big Guy… Good day… And Happy Birthday to Chuck! Yes it is Chuck Butlers birthday today, and I know all of you Pfennig Pfanatics will join me in wishing our fearless leader a very happy birthday today!! He is spending his birthday surrounded by his family in what he considers one of the greatest places on earth, the spring training home of the Cardinals. More thoughts on Chuck at the end of today’s Pfennig, but I just wanted to make sure I started today’s Pfennig off on a positive note. The dollar is starting of the day with a positive move vs. most of the currencies, after spending most of yesterday bouncing around in a fairly narrow range. I couldn’t find anything which caused the move higher this morning, with most analysts crediting a return of ‘safe haven’ buying for the increase. Both Fed Chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Geithner were in front of Congress yesterday, and Bernanke was sounding a cautious tone regarding the US economic recovery. There was also a private report released which caused further concern on China’s growth prospects and the existing home sales in the US were disappointing, so the combination of these two items along with the caution tone of Bernanke are probably what is making investors return to the dollar. The 10 year treasury would certainly support the ‘safe haven’ theory. Yields on the 10 yr US bond have are down 4.3 basis points today, and now yields 2.25%. The yield on the 10 year had moved from below 2% at the beginning of the month to a high of 2.38% at the beginning of this week, a fairly dramatic move for bonds. With bonds, yields and the price of the bond are inversely related with bond prices moving lower as the yields move up. So bonds investors were selling bonds in a big way over the first 3 weeks of March, investing the proceeds into the equity markets and currencies other than the US$. But these same investors now seem to be moving back into the bonds, causing prices to rise and yields to fall back to 2.25%. Chuck has long warned Pfennig readers that the US treasury market is a bubble waiting to be popped, and the dramatic move in bond prices earlier this month should serve as a warning for investors. Bond yields just can’t remain as low as they have been, as inflation starts to put pressure on bond prices. Existing home sales in the US dropped .9% during the month of February, compared to an impressive 5.7% increase during the month of January. Economists had estimated a increase for sales of .9%, but the revision to January’s number helped offset the unexpected loss of sales. Today we will get the usual weekly jobs numbers, which are expected to show 350k newly unemployed with continuing claims of 3,380k. We will also see an index of House prices which are expected to have risen .3% MOM in January, and the Leading Indicators which are predicted to have increased .6% during the month of February. As I mentioned earlier, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform yesterday and sounded a more cautious tone on the prospects for the US economy. He warned the committee members that “Higher energy prices would probably slow growth, at least in the short run”. He went on to explain that rising gas prices “create at least short-term inflation pressures, and moreover, they act as a tax on household purchasing power and reduce consumption spending, and that also is a drag on the economy.” His cautionary tone matches the warnings we heard from NY Fed Head Dudley earlier this week. It seems the FOMC members are trying to make sure investors know the economic recovery is not a ‘sure thing’ and we will certainly hit some bumps on our road to recovery. Higher oil prices are creating a strong head wind which the US economic recovery is going to have to struggle against, and Bernanke and his partners on the FOMC are hoping the rising prices are just a quick gust which we can pedal through. Leaders of the European Union also continue to battle headwinds in their economic recovery. A report out this morning showed Euro-area services and manufacturing output shrank more than expected during March. The euro-area purchasing manager’s composite index fell to 48.7 from 49.3, with any reading below 50 indicating a contraction. But this data was offset a bit by an earlier report that showed German investor sentiment surged to a 21 month high. The euro also caught some love from the US financial leaders. Both Treasury Secretary Geithner and Fed Chairman Bernanke told the US congressmen that the risk from Europe’s debt crisis is fading. “In the past few months, financial stresses in Europe have lessened, which has contributed to an improved tone of financial markets around the world, including in the United States,” Bernanke said. Treasury Secretary Geithner went on to say “The European economies at the center of the crisis have made very significant progress.” But Secretary Geithner also warned that slower growth which is being predicted for the EU will have a negative impact on future growth here in the US. I haven’t written about the Japanese yen all week, but a report on Japan’s trade has finally given me a reason to visit the yen. Japan reported their first trade surplus in five months on higher than forecast exports. The news adds to growing evidence that the world’s third largest economy is finally growing again. Japan reported a trade surplus of 32.9 billion yen, a sharp reversal of a record deficit posted in January. The surplus was even more surprising to analysts who had predicted another trade deficit. Exports to the US were mostly responsible for the surplus, increasing 11.9% in February from a year earlier. Auto exports were the main driver of the increase in shipments to the US. The yen increased slightly vs. the US$ after the surprise news, but pared its gains in early US trading. The yen had been one of the best performing currencies over the past few years, but has reversed course this year dropping nearly 7.5% vs. the US$. At least some of this sell-off in the yen has been due to the re-emergence of the carry trade, where investors borrow and sell low yielding currencies to purchase higher yielding currencies to book the interest rate differential. Carry trades have a fairly close correlation to global growth, with more investors willing to invest in them when they are confident. This is part of the reason the yen has underperformed this year, as investors have sold it while investing into the higher yielding currencies of Australia and New Zealand. It will be interesting to see what will happen to the yen if the Japanese economy recovers. Perhaps these carry trade investors will need to find a different currency to borrow and sell; the euro certainly looks like a plausible alternative. A top official in India’s finance ministry predicted rates may be cut in April. Economic Affairs Secretary R. Gopalan said “If inflation remains at this level after factoring in various things, then interest rate reversals may start in April.” He went on to stress that growth is important, and current interest rate levels are hampering it. Finance officials have been hinting that they are prepared to start cutting rates ever since they left them unchanged at the last meeting on March 15th. India’s Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has taken steps to cut India’s trade deficit, hoping to support the Indian rupee. The main item in his plan is a doubling of the tax on imports of gold. Gold accounts for 14 percent of India’s imports, so the higher tax rate will definitely help the budget. These moves are seen as positive steps for the Indian economy, in spite of the protests from jewelers who closed their shops for five days. Investors should be encouraged by the Finance Minister’s plans to reduce the current account and budget deficits, and the currency should benefit from the rising economic fundamentals. Indian interest rates are among the highest offered, second only to those in Brazil. Higher rates have helped propel the Indian rupee to a 3.61% increase this year. The commodity currencies of Australia and New Zealand were off slightly after a report signaled Chinese manufacturing will contract for a fifth month. The report, authored by HSBC, showed a Purchasing Managers Index fell to 48.1 in March, the lowest level in four months. This indicates Chinese manufacturing is continuing to contract. The New Zealand dollar was also sold off after a report showed GDP rose .3% during the last quarter of 2011, slightly below economist’s estimates of a .6% growth. The slower growth figure dampened expectations that Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Alan Bollard would increase rates by September of this year. The kiwi has had a 4% increase in value vs. the US$ this year on the back of these interest rate expectations, so we could see a further pull back by the kiwi. To recap… It is Chuck’s Birthday. The dollar moved higher on ‘safe haven’ buying after Bernanke and Geithner warned that higher gas prices would have a negative impact on US growth. Existing home sales were disappointing and reports out of Europe showed manufacturing is shrinking. Japan reported a trade surplus for the first time in a while, helping to push the yen higher. India’s top finance minister is predicting rates will be cut in April, and a tax on Gold imports is set to double in April. Finally, New Zealand GDP increased less than predicted in the 4th quarter of 2011, causing some to predict rates will be stay put through 2012. Currencies today 3/22/2012. American Style: A$ $1.0378, kiwi .8086, C$ $1.0045, euro 1.3163, sterling 1.5807, Swiss $1.0919. European Style: rand 7.7197, krone 5.7892, SEK 6.7673, forint 223.21, zloty 3.1682, koruna 18.8187, RUB 29.421, yen 82.89, sing 1.2671, HKD 7.7652, INR 51.165, China 6.2994, pesos 12.8224, BRL 1.8180, Dollar Index 79.827, Oil $106.05, 10-year 2.26%, Silver $31.8775, and Gold $1,635.99. That’s it for today… Happy Birthday to Chuck! I’m sure he is probably enjoying his coffee sitting on his patio or on the beach looking out at the ocean. His family is down in Florida to celebrate with him, so I’m sure they will have a great time. We will be celebrating here with Chinese for lunch! The Blues lost a tough one, but are still leading all other NHL teams going into the end of the season. I hope everyone has a Tub Thumping Thursday, and thanks for reading the Pfennig!! Chris Gaffney, CFA Vice President EverBank World Markets 1-800-926-4922 1-314-647-3837 www.everbank.comread more

A coalition of state attorneys general is suing the Trump administration for weakening the federal nutrition standards for school meals that are fed to about 30 million children across the country.”Over a million children in New York — especially those in low-income communities and communities of color — depend on the meals served daily by their schools to be healthy, nutritious, and prepare them for learning,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. Joining James in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Mexico and Vermont. As we’ve reported, last year the Trump administration gave school lunch administrators more flexibility in serving up refined grains, including white breads, biscuits and white pastas. The move weakened standards set during the Obama administration aimed at serving more nutritious and fiber-dense whole grains, which are a key part of a healthy diet. In addition, the Trump administration put the brakes on targets to reduce the amount of salt allowed in school meals. At the time, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue wrote: “If kids are not eating what is being served, they are not benefiting, and food is being wasted.”But public health advocates have cried foul. “The ‘flexibilities’ the administration is offering [schools] are both unnecessary and undermining,” Laura MacCleery, policy director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said. Her group has also filed a lawsuit in federal court in Maryland. The suit argues that the U.S. Department of Agriculture violated the National School Lunch Act. The group argues that the weakened standards put millions of children at greater risk of health problems associated with a diet that’s high in sodium and low in whole grains. “When I think about what policies are available to move the needle on the health of kids, this is the big one,” MacCleery says. “The Trump administration is blowing it.”Letitia James echoes this: “The Trump Administration has undermined key health benefits for our children — standards for salt and whole grains in school meals — with deliberate disregard for science, expert opinion, and the law,” she wrote in a statement announcing the lawsuit.The School Nutrition Association, which represents 58,000 school nutrition professionals, has pushed for and supports the changes made by the Trump administration’s final rule on school meal “flexibilities.” “SNA appreciates USDA’s efforts to preserve strong standards to benefit students while addressing long-standing challenges to ensure they choose and consume healthy school meals,” SNA President Gay Anderson said in a statement. School nutrition directors have argued that it’s tough to implement changes that may turn kids off, so they need more time to figure out how to lower sodium levels and boost whole grains. Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.read more

September 29, 2014 Add to Queue Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Guest Writer Learn from renowned serial entrepreneur David Meltzer how to find your frequency in order to stand out from your competitors and build a brand that is authentic, lasting and impactful. –shares Next Article Location 2 min read Fireside Chat | July 25: Three Surprising Ways to Build Your Brand Laura Entis A Microsoft store is coming to Fifth Avenue.While the company currently has more than 100 retail stores in North America, its Fifth Avenue location will be its first in Manhattan, the company confirmed to The Wall Street Journal.”As our first flagship store, it will serve as the centerpiece of our Microsoft Stores experience,” David Porter, corporate vice president for Microsoft retail stores, wrote in a blog post. “This is a goal we’ve had since day one—we were only waiting for the right location. And now we have it.”The location is expensive, prestigious and certainly makes a statement. It’s also just a few blocks away from Apple’s flagship New York store, where lines for new Apple product launches often run blocks deep.Related: This Tool Promises to Find the Best Location for Your BusinessFor a company often accused of being perpetually late to the game, Microsoft’s decision to open its Manhattan flagship store a few blocks away from Apple’s flagship, which opened over eight years ago, is an interesting choice.Since Microsoft opened its first retail location in 2009, the software company has been steadily ramping up the number of physical stores it operates. While a large percentage of what Microsoft sells are services, not physical items, customers can purchase products such as Surface Pro, Windows Phones, Xbox One at its retail stores, as well as visit a “help desk” (pretty much the equivalent of Apple’s “genius bar”).Still, in this respect, Microsoft is chasing Apple, which opened its first retail store in 2001 and currently has more than 250 stores in the U.S. alone.No word yet on when we can expect the Fifth Avenue location to open, but the company will launch new retail stores in Toronto, Tulsa, OK Bethesda, MD and Cerritos, CA before the year’s end.Related: Wait, What? Microsoft CEO Says Company Needs to Rediscover Its Soul. In Risky Move, Microsoft to Open NYC Flagship Right Near Apple’s Enroll Now for $5read more

Add to Queue EU antitrust regulators will investigate McDonald’s tax deals with Luxembourg which enabled the U.S. fastfood chain to escape paying taxes on European franchise royalties from 2009, in a move which could lead to hefty back taxes for the company.The action by the European Commission comes two months after it ordered Luxembourg to recover up to 30 million euros ($32 million) from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the Dutch to do the same for Starbucks because their tax deals were seen as unlawful aid.The EU competition enforcer said McDonald’s had not paid any corporate taxes in Luxembourg or the United States on royalties paid by franchisees in Europe and Russia since 2009 as a result of two tax rulings by the Luxembourg authorities.”A tax ruling that agrees to McDonald’s paying no tax on their European royalties either in Luxembourg or in the U.S. has to be looked at very carefully under EU state aid rules,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said.”The purpose of double taxation treaties between countries is to avoid double taxation – not to justify double non-taxation.”Luxembourg’s finance ministry said the country had granted no special tax treatment nor selective advantage to McDonald’s and that it would cooperate fully with the investigation.McDonald’s said it complied with all tax rules in Europe and that its companies had paid more than 2.1 billion euros in corporate taxes in the European Union from 2010 to 2014, with an average tax rate of almost 27 percent.It also paid social, real estate and other taxes, while its independent franchises, operators of about 75 percent of its outlets, paid corporate and other taxes.”We are confident that the inquiry will be resolved favorably,” it said in a statement.TWIN RULINGS, NO TAXThe Commission said McDonald’s Europe Franchising was exempted from paying taxes on this income in Luxembourg on the grounds that the profits were subject to taxation in the United States. However, when the ruling was granted in 2009, these profits were not subjected to tax in the United States.In a second ruling, Luxembourg agreed that McDonald’s did not have to prove that this income was subject to U.S. tax, the Commission said.Luxembourg, the Commission said, exempted the profits from taxation there despite knowing that they were in fact not subject to tax in the United States.The case presents yet another headache for Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker as Luxembourg developed its favorable tax system during the near quarter-century that he served as the Grand Duchy’s finance minister or prime minister.Vestager’s move against McDonald’s came following critical media reports and evidence from trade unions.”For too long, McDonald’s has stashed billions in tax havens and ducked contributing to state coffers … and it’s time that the company be held accountable” Scott Courtney, organizing director at SEIU, said in a statement.SEIU represents 2 million healthcare, public sector and property service workers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.($1 = 0.9471 euros)(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Mark Potter) –shares Next Article Reuters 3 min read Image credit: Tupungato | Shutterstock.com This story originally appeared on Reuters McDonald’s Learn how to successfully navigate family business dynamics and build businesses that excel. European Union to Probe McDonald’s Tax Deals With Luxembourg Register Now » Free Webinar | July 31: Secrets to Running a Successful Family Business December 3, 2015 McDonalds in Copenhagen.read more

Add to Queue Entrepreneur Staff Staff Writer. Covers leadership, media, technology and culture. Next Article Innovation Nina Zipkin Free Webinar | July 31: Secrets to Running a Successful Family Business For many people, their commute to work is a daily exercise in unpredictability and stress. Americans spend a nerve-fraying 42 hours out of the year stuck in traffic, and that congestion also harms the environment.But Gerald Sanders, CEO of seven-year-old transportation startup skyTran, has a mission to change how people commute around the world.Based at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., skyTran developed a high-speed elevated Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system that looks like something out of a sci-fi movie — futuristic and streamlined aluminum pods that are attached to steel poles and powered by patented magnetic levitation technology. Able to hit speeds of up to 150 mph, the silent vehicles are designed to be an environmentally sound alternative to that soul-crushing traffic.Related: Elon Musk’s Dream of People Traveling in Tubes Is Alive!It may sound like a futuristic dream, but working with infrastructure, especially in cities, is rife with roadblocks. How do you generate that all important governmental and community buy-in? Sanders says that is the multimillion-dollar question at hand.“We believe that when people understand the promise of skyTran, when they understand that all we’re talking about is a system that costs about one tenth to one hundredth of any competing system, that will not require massive government subsidies, that will never be stuck in traffic, that is silent and fast, people are going to want this system in their homes and neighborhoods,” he says. “We’ve learned that persistence is everything.”Related: Nissan Thinks This Tiny Car May Be the Future of Urban TransportationAlex Washburn, an Industry Professor of Design at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ and the former chief urban designer of the City of New York under Michael Bloomberg, says that startups such as skyTran have a tough road ahead of them. “Nothing happens in the city without an alignment of politics, finance and design,” he says. “And if something is not profitable, it’s not replicable — and cities grow by repetition.”That replicability could be part of skyTran’s future appeal. When describing the construction of the systems, Sanders likened the process to using Lego bricks. “You can build the entire system in a factory off-site,” he says, “and then when you’re ready to deploy it, you simply come to the city, and you roll it out without having to close off roads, highways, freeways, digging tunnels or anything.” The systems don’t generate any electromagnetic radiation and utilize one third of the energy of a hybrid car, according to Sanders.Related: Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs Is Building a Platform to Make Traffic Less HorribleSanders also plays up the system’s cost-effectiveness. Traditional mass transit systems rely on a great deal of manpower. Paying the people who make the trains run on time, from ticket takers to engineers, can take up 85 percent of revenue, according to Sanders. But software-supported skyTran’s operating costs would come to about 15 to 20 percent of revenue.For the construction of New York City’s Second Avenue Subway, $4.45 billion was set aside to build only the first phase, which will stretch from 96th Street to 63rd Street. It’s anticipated to be ready by the end of the year, but the construction has been going on since 2009. Invoking New York’s never-ending story, Sanders claims that this is the kind of political and budgetary gridlock that skyTran is aiming to avoid, costing around $9 million per mile and built in under a few weeks.Related: Uber and Lyft Will Collaborate With Public Transportation So You Don’t Have to Own a CarHowever, for skyTran and other companies operating in this space, the challenge is not only convincing officials that a system such as skyTran belongs in their cities, but having a comprehensive understanding of the regulations that currently exist that will either help or hinder them.”There is a really important function that entrepreneurs are going to have to do and hopefully maybe government officials can help them, which is to scour back laws that are preventing us from accomplishing today what we need to do tomorrow,” explains Washburn. “There is a school of regulation that imagines the world as a static place. The world is not static, it’s a dynamic place and it’s only getting more dynamic. So there is a challenge for regulation to be based on performance and equity, not a table of standards that have been empirically derived. I think successful infrastructures will be able to introduce into regulation that notion of a dynamic city. “Related: Meet the Design Startup That Aims to Speed Up Urban CommutesSkyTran will soon have some real life examples of their proof of concept for regulators to look to. A pilot program system has been built on the campus of Israel Aerospace Industries in Lod, Israel, and the company recently announced that it would be constructing a 50-kilometer system in Lagos, Nigeria, to be incorporated into the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA). The company also has a partnership with French civil engineering firm Systra to develop a system in that country and would like to set up its first U.S. assembly plant in Baltimore.In April, skyTran announced that it had raised $30 million in series B funding to build up the company’s team of engineers and make an even bigger push to get the word out, which is a challenge Sanders says his team is ready for. “Anywhere you put your finger on the globe,” he says, “is a place where we could make people’s lives better.” 5 min read May 18, 2016 This Company Wants City Dwellers to Travel in Flying Pods. First, It Must Face the Huge Hurdle of Regulations. –shares Learn how to successfully navigate family business dynamics and build businesses that excel. Register Now »read more

Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor)Apr 24 2019A new study of adults who were referred for evaluation of a suspected sleep disorder suggests that women tend to underreport snoring and underestimate its loudness.Results show that objectively measured snoring was found in 88% of the women (591 of 675), but only 72% reported that they snore (496 of 675). In contrast, objective snoring (92.6%) and self-reported snoring (93.1%) were nearly identical in men. The study also found that women snored as loudly as men, with a mean maximal snoring intensity of 50 decibels among women and 51.7 decibels among men. About 49% of the women had severe or very severe snoring (329 of 675), but only 40% of the women rated their snoring at this level of severity (269 of 675).”We found that although no difference in snoring intensity was found between genders, women tend to underreport the fact that they snore and to underestimate the loudness of their snoring,” said Nimrod Maimon, MD, MHA, principal investigator and professor at the BGU Faculty of Health Sciences and the head of internal medicine (B Ward) at Soroka University Medical Center in Be’er Sheva, Israel. “Women reported snoring less often and described it as milder.”Related StoriesMore than 936 million people have sleep apnea, ResMed-led analysis revealsUnpleasant experiences could be countered with a good night’s REM sleepSleep quality could be indicator for later Alzheimer’s disease finds studyThe study results are published in the March 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.Snoring is a respiratory sound generated in the upper airway during sleep. The intensity of snoring may vary and often will disturb the bed partner’s sleep. Snoring is a common warning sign for obstructive sleep apnea, a chronic disease that involves the repeated collapse of the upper airway during sleep.The study involved 1,913 patients who were referred to a sleep disorders center at a university hospital for a sleep evaluation. They had an average age of 49 years. Participants were given a questionnaire that asked them to rate the severity of their snoring. Objective snoring volume was quantified using a calibrated digital sound survey meter during a sleep study that lasted an entire night. Snoring intensity was classified as mild (40 – 45 decibels), moderate (45 – 55 decibels), severe (55 – 60 decibels), or very severe (60 decibels or more).According to the authors, there is a social stigma associated with snoring among women. Therefore, women may not reliably answer questions about snoring, which may contribute to the underdiagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea in women.”The fact that women reported snoring less often and described it as milder may be one of the barriers preventing women from reaching sleep clinics for a sleep study,” Maimon said.Maimon added that health care providers who are screening women for suspected obstructive sleep apnea should consider other factors in addition to self-reported snoring. For example, women with sleep apnea may be more likely than men to report other symptoms such as daytime fatigue or tiredness. Source:https://aasm.org/women-underreport-snoring/read more

Tech News 24 May 2019 Nasa’s first-of-kind tests look to manage drone in cities This week DJI announced two high-security drones intended for government use. Known as the Government Edition models, they have received clearance from the US Department of Interior, which is responsible for evaluating and approving drone technology for use across a wide range of applications.While filmmakers were the first to embrace drones for their ability to replace expensive helicopters as a means to get aerial footage, the unmanned aerial systems are now being widely adopted by public works agencies to carry out safety inspections of infrastructure, Gasparic said in a presentation at RISE. Drones are also used to manage and maintain energy grids and are increasingly being adopted by the agricultural industry.“While there are a whole range of different applications out there, we cannot imagine all the different applications because there are too many,” said Gasparic, who estimated that the US alone has about 120,000 commercial professional drone pilots, part of a global community of 370,000.DJI has repeatedly denied that its devices send flight data to China or elsewhere, but to address such concerns it announced last month a plan to open new manufacturing lines in the US.Shenzhen-based DJI, founded in 2006, has grown from a cramped room in a university dorm to a global enterprise with 14,000 employees and 17 offices internationally. Its new headquarters in Shenzhen, set to open in 2022, will house all its operations under one roof.The company controls more than 70% of the global commercial and consumer drone market and generated sales of 18bil yuan (RM10.77bil or US$2.7 billion) in 2017, an 80% jump from the year before. – South China Morning Post US public safety agencies are rapidly adopting unmanned aircraft from Chinese drone maker DJI Technologies even as the Trump administration voices security concerns that the devices could be sending sensitive surveillance data back to China.“Between 2015 and 2018 we have seen 500 per cent growth of drone adoption by public safety agencies in the US,” Jan Gasparic, director of strategic partnerships at DJI, said at the RISE tech conference in Hong Kong on Wednesday. “The reason for such a fast rate is because this technology has a transformative impact on the type of work they do.”The rapid adoption of drones in safety agencies illustrates DJI’s strategy of sharpening its focus on its industrial business with new products to offset slowing growth in the broader consumer market.“DJI started as a drone company but will not only play in that field,” said Gasparic. “We are always taking different approaches to put core technologies into new products and [product] categories.” Tech News 26 May 2019 Here’s why your Internet may be delivered by a drone someday soon SCMP , Tech , Gear , Enterprises , Policy , Big Tech DJI controls more than 70% of the global commercial and consumer drone market and generated sales of US$2.7bil in 2017. — SCMP Tags / Keywords: World 09 Jul 2019 Saudi-led coalition intercepted a Yemeni Houthi drone launched at kingdom – SPA Related News Related News In May, CNN reported that the US Department of Homeland Security alerted American companies to “be aware” in case their unmanned aerial systems (UAS) data was “being stored by the vendor or other third parties”.The alert from the department’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, according to CNN, stated that the drones were a “potential risk to an organisation’s information”.The warning did not name any particular manufacturer, but fuelled speculation that DJI – which accounts for nearly 80 per cent of the drones used in North America, according to data from Skylogic Research – might be banned from selling in the US. {{category}} {{time}} {{title}}read more